Utah Jazz hold off Dallas Mavericks, improve to 2-0 in Las Vegas

The Utah Jazz held off the Dallas Mavericks late to get the win in Las Vegas, 83-82.

The player of the game for the Jazz was Tacko Fall who ended with 12 points, 15 rebounds and 3 blocks. Tacko’s size made a big difference in the game as he filled lanes and provided size that helped the Jazz beat the Mavericks summer league squad. Tacko is a fun story, and a great guy by all accounts. Here’s to rooting for Tacko to make an NBA roster this year, maybe even with the Jazz if he can figure out how to be a stronger presence against better competition.

The other player that has to be talked about is Jared Butler. Butler will get criticism for his shooting in this game, and it’s warranted. Tonight he went 3/22. There’s some caveats to that. The first is that this Jazz roster doesn’t have a ton of playmakers outside of Butler, so it is forcing him to create his own shot at times. The issue is that it’s just not falling very consistently this summer league. Now, this could just be a slump (don’t forget, Butler was a good shooter in college, for example) but it’s a little discouraging that he’s not getting the shots to go down against this level of competition. It might be nothing but it’s not giving a ton of confidence that Butler is ready to contribute as an efficient scorer yet.

That being said. Butler was fantastic with his passing and decision-making. He had 10 assists in this on and was in control for the most part while he was in the game. In the 1-point win, Butler was a +6 and really helped the Jazz get the win. It’s a great sign that Butler is someone to keep developing. That type of playmaking is always valuable and when he’s on the floor with better shooters and players, it’s easy to see how he’ll improve with the talent around him.

And really, this is what summer league is all about. Butler got next to no chances to do anything under the stringent, and I’ll just say it, lazy rotations from Quin Snyder last year. This is the type of thing that will help Butler know what he needs to improve on after summer league is over so he can be better in training camp. You can’t get better until you know what needs improving!